Saturday, September 8, 2012

Lewis Hamilton in Pole in Italian Grand Prix Qualifying

2012 Italian Grand Prix Qualifying | Formula One

Lewis Hamilton scores pole position in the 2012 Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton lead his teammate Jenson Button to lock out the front row in the 2012 Italian grand Prix qualifying. In a closely fought qualifying, 0.5 seconds separated the top 5 drivers. Out of this the top four were only separated by 0.3 seconds.

The 2012 Italian Grand Prix is expected to be a bit different as the “bulldozer Grosjean” has been banned for this race and in his place comes in Lotus reserve driver Gerome d’ Ambrosio. This would be his first race. And expectedly he qualified at 16th vis-à-vis the 8th position of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.
However, the major surprise came from the Ferrari drivers. Felipe Massa who is widely expected to lose his drive in Ferrari at the end of the season scored a P3 where as his teammate and world championship leader Fernando Alonso could only score the 10th position.

Paul di Resta, scored the 4th position with a phenomenal time of 1:24.204. Michael Schumacher came 5th at 1:24.540. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel at 1:24.802. Nico Rosberg who had a very poor outing in the previous race came in 7th with a time of 1:24.833. Kobayashi came in 9th at 1:25.109.

At the back of the grid, Narain Karthikeyan was very happy as he could beat his team mate Pedro de la Rosa 0.188 seconds.

2012 Italian Grand Prix Qualifying

1.Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:24.010

2.Jenson Button McLaren 1:24.133

3.Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:24.247

4.Paul di Resta Force India 1:24.304

5.Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:24.540

6.Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:24.802

7.Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.802

8.Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:24.855

9.Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1:24.109

10.Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:25.678

Q2

11.Mark Webber Red Bull 1:24.809

12.Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:24.820

13.Sergio Perez Sauber 1:24.901

14.Bruno Senna Williams 1:25.042

15.Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:25.312

16.Jerom d’Ambrosio Lotus 1:25.408

17.Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:25.441

Q3

18.Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1.26.382

19.Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1:26.887

20.Timo Glock Marussia 1:27.039

21.Charles Pic Marussia 1:27.073

22.Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1:27.441

23.Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1:27.629

24.Nico Hulkenberg Force India -

This grand prix is going to be interesting as the championship leader Fernando Alonso is starting in 10th position and his competitors are ahead of him. Lets see how the race unfolds tomorrow. Out of the top five qualifiers three are using mercedes engines. Will Michael Schumacher win this Grand Prix. Or will Lewis Hamilton with this race after suffering many mishaps in the previous races and bring his title efforts back on track?